


you cannot always make penance

by starsandspears



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, Healing, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Recovery, beta kids - Freeform, rose understands dave theyre good siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:00:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22835911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsandspears/pseuds/starsandspears
Summary: “Do you think everyone is redeemable?”-Or, Dave asks each of his friends a question.
Relationships: Jade Harley & Dave Strider, John Egbert & Dave Strider, Rose Lalonde & Dave Strider
Comments: 2
Kudos: 42





	you cannot always make penance

“Do you think everyone is redeemable?”

Dave is lounging in the doorway of John’s room, expression as inscrutable as ever behind those shades. He’s got a shoulder leaning on the doorframe, arms crossed over his chest. John, hunched over his computer, jumps a little and looks up. His hair is a tousled mess (as usual) and there’s a buck-toothed grin on his face (also as usual.)

“Dave! You scared me, sheesh. Give a guy some warning, mister stealth ninja.” John pushes up his glasses and chews on his lip thoughtfully. He takes a moment to set his laptop aside before replying. “Is everyone redeemable… huh. Yeah, I think so! I mean even the worst people can change, y’know? Like the trolls started out, well, trolling us, but now we’re all pretty close. Remember how rude Karkat was at first? I guess he’s still rude now, but he can also be nice.” John pauses in his ramble to push his glasses up his nose again. He really needs some better frames. “So yeah, basically. I think everyone deserves a second chance! Don’t you?”

He looks expectantly up at his best friend. Dave seems tense, almost, shoulders raised just a little. Almost as a defense. “Yeah,” Dave says, and his voice is hollow. “For sure.”

John starts to say something, ask him if he’s okay. But a notification chimes on his laptop, and he turns to respond to it. When he looks back at the doorway, Dave is gone. 

John says aloud to the empty room, “Huh. Weird.”

—

“Do you think everyone is redeemable?”

He’s kneeling in Jade’s garden, dirt under his fingernails, helping her plant herbs for the spring. Across from him she looks up, hands still sculpting dirt around the base of a mint plant. “That’s a little sudden,” she laughs, turning to grab a handful of mulch. “Anything on your mind to bring that up?”

Dave shrugs, focus still on the plant. “Oh y’know, just some bullshit Lalonde and I were talking about recently,” he says. It hurts to lie to her, but he pushes on. “Just wanted to get your two cents.”

Jade’s keen eyes study him, vivid green and narrowed in skepticism. But she looks away after a moment, frowning at the dirt and thinking. “Is everyone redeemable… hm, good question,” she mumbles. 

They’re quiet for a few minutes more, and Dave starts to think he may not get an answer. But Jade finally breaks the silence, just as Dave is getting up to brush the dirt off of his knees. “Yes,” she says simply. 

Dave rubs some dirt off of a scuffed-up sneaker. “Yes what?”

“Yes,” Jade repeats, sounding more sure of herself, “everyone is redeemable.” She fixes her glasses a little, doesn’t meet his eyes as she starts to speak. “People can be… people can be awful, and mean, and sometimes downright cruel! But people can also grow, and change, and learn to be kind. Even really awful people can, I think! That doesn’t mean they weren’t bad people, once, but I think anyone can be a good person if they try.” Jade looks down at her hands, once covered in reminders, now covered in dirt. “I have to believe that,” she says quietly. 

Dave tries to ignore the lump in his throat. He nods, bobbing his head rapidly. “Right,” he croaks, clears his throat. “Right, yeah. Glad to hear your take on it.” His hands have clenched into fists without him noticing it, fingernails cutting crescents into his palms. Jade looks up at him, face full of concern. 

She asks, “Dave? Is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine,” he replies, harsh. He doesn’t miss the way she flinches, and feels a stab of guilt. But it’s worse to hear from her, somehow, than from John. Dave turns and starts to leave her garden. 

Jade watches him go and frowns. 

—

“Do you think everyone is redeemable.” It’s tired at this point, as he lays sprawled on Rose’s queen-sized bed and stares up at her ceiling. In the corner where her chair is he hears her knitting needles still, the rustle of fabric as she leans on her forearms to peer at him. Dave expects a full-on Spanish Inquisition at his question before she gives him any kind of answer. Which is why he’s surprised when she purses black-lipstick lips, considers for a moment. 

“No,” Rose Lalonde says calmly. “I do not.”

Dave turns his head to look at her. It makes his glasses dig into his face a little, but like hell he’s taking them off. “You don’t?” He tries to sound casual about it, but isn’t fooling either of them. “How do you figure?”

Rose looks at him—really looks, in her calculating way where it feels like she’s seeing right through him to his core. It makes him shift, uncomfortable. She smooths down her skirt with manicured hands, gaze flicking to the side as she thinks. 

“Because,” Rose says slowly, searching for words, “some people have committed such atrocities that they simply don’t deserve redemption.” It’s simple, to the point, and yet it sets Dave’s heart thudding. 

“What if—“ he swallows. “What if they like, try to change and get better though? Or what if they think they’re acting for the right reasons?”

“They can change, yes, and become better people. Good people, even. But that doesn’t always make up for past mistakes.” Rose looks at Dave again. This time it isn’t analyzing, or even coy. It’s full of understanding as she says, “And do you really think he didn’t know how cruel he was being? ‘Right reasons’ be damned.”

There she goes, cutting straight to the heart of him. Dave stops fidgeting, goes deathly still under her stare. “I don’t know what you mean,” he says stiffly. 

Rose sighs, sets her knitting aside. She stands up. 

“What,” says Dave, “are you doing—are you coming over here? You better not come over here, this is _Dave _territory now. Trespass at your own risk.”__

__Rose ignores him, which is pretty much what he had expected anyways. “Move _over _, Strider,” she says in exasperation. He reluctantly scoots to the side, grumbling under his breath.___ _

____His sister settles neatly next to him, sitting back against the pillows, hands held primly in her lap. Dave sprawls out even more next to her, out of spite. They’re both silent for a while—both too proud to be the one to break the silence. But eventually, Rose graciously bites the bullet._ _ _ _

____“Dave, what your brother did was not okay,” she says plainly, because Rose Lalonde has never known how to be gentle, never known how to do anything but lay out the facts as she sees them. It’s one of the things Dave loves about her, although he’d die before he'd tell her that._ _ _ _

____He lets out a choked sort of laugh, turned back towards the ceiling now. It’s easier than looking at her. “Jesus, Lalonde, thanks for the realization. I’ve known that shit for a long time by now. Accepted it, I guess.”_ _ _ _

____“But part of you still feels like you deserved it, didn’t you? Like you can’t blame him because he was doing it in some twisted attempt at preparing you? As if—“_ _ _ _

____“Stop,” Dave chokes, entirely tense. “Don’t, okay? If I knew you were gonna start psychoanalyzing me like this, I wouldn’t have fucking asked my question in the first place.” He moves to sit up, but Rose’s quiet voice stops him._ _ _ _

____“Wait.” A pause. “.... I’m sorry.”_ _ _ _

____Still not looking at her, he flops back down with a huff._ _ _ _

____Rose picks a piece of non-existent lint off of her comforter. “All I mean to say,” she continues, “is that you are conflicted. On how upset you should be at him.” She clears her throat, delicately._ _ _ _

____“Dave. Bro’s actions were, quite frankly, despicable. All the things he put you through, everything he did. It doesn’t matter that he thought he was preparing you. It doesn’t matter if he, in some twisted way, thought this was the best way to go about it. He was so, so cruel.” Rose says her last line firmly, always knowing how to make an impact with her words, “He does not deserve redemption.”_ _ _ _

____Dave doesn’t realize he’s crying until one of her hands is on his shoulder, and then he can’t hold the tears back. He tries to curl up, to hide from Rose, but she ‘tch’s at him softly. Gentle hands tug his shades away from his face, and he lets her, because deep down he’s tired of hiding._ _ _ _

____Rose pets his hair, rubs his shoulder as he lays next to her and sobs. The motions are somewhat stiff at first, awkward, coming from a woman who never learned how to comfort. But the contact helps, and so does knowing that she’s trying. Eventually Dave wipes his eyes, then wipes his nose on her comforter. Rose sighs, but says nothing except, “Feeling a little better after that?”_ _ _ _

____“Yeah,” he says, voice still a little rough. “Thanks.”_ _ _ _

____“It’s no problem at all,” she replies. “And… Dave?”_ _ _ _

____“Yeah?”_ _ _ _

____“You know I love you, right?”_ _ _ _

____“Yeah. Yeah, I do. I love you too, Rose.”_ _ _ _

**Author's Note:**

> rose&dave deserve a good dynamic
> 
> comments are always cherished!


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